Designers are meant to be loved not to be understood

While I don't agree with these design rules completely, I absolutely love the concept as well as the way it is laid out. I wish I could paint/stencil this on one of my walls!

1) Designers are meant to be loved not to be understood.

2) The purpose of design is to make the ordinary extraordinary.

3) The best designers are the ones that find the good clients.

4) Design must seduce, shape &, more importantly, evoke an emotional response.

5) Good design can be planned but great design just happens.

6) Design the right things, design the things right.

7) Imagination is more important than knowledge.

Streetlight Storm: Lights powered by Lightening

Artist Katie Paterson has teamed up with Vauxhall Motors for a pretty amazing art exhibition that monitors global storm patterns. Basically the lights flickr in time with lightening storms as they occur live across the world. So basically if there is a lightening storm somewhere in China, the lights will flickr on this pier in a sleepy British town on the sea. Apparently there are around 6000 lightning storms happening across the world at any one time. So the flash of the pier lights shows the pattern and intensity of the various storms happening around the globe. Like I said pretty amazing. Check out the video at the bottom of the post.

via Cakehead Loves Evil

Anthropologie Accessories

Ok so I know I go on and on about Anthropologie. I promise they aren't paying me to (though that would be freaking sweet and half my paycheck goes to them anyways). I just can't get over how creative they are! Their latest in awe inducing campaigns are below. Putting jewelry in snowglobe type jars. Drawing pictures around items in their marvels and wonders section and putting accessories in ice.

Can you imagine when somebody came up with the idea in a brainstorming meeting and was like how about we freeze our scarves and socks. I can't imagine the trial and error of freezing their merchandise either. Or getting the jewelry not to distort in the glass jars. If you can't tell, I love thinking about process when looking at creative ideas. Especially when it is something innovative that you know they had to just try a lot of different things until they were successful.

Anyways backtracking now, below are a few pictures of their latest creative work. Hope you find it as fun and inspirational as I do!

What I love about Christmas

Well the Christmas season is finally upon us. I'm still in shock that it is already the first of December. And before we know it, Christmas will be here. Which is why I want to savor the little things that I love about the holiday season.

Christmas Decorations

krisdecurtis

Snow! (or for me as close as I can get, fake snow)

bugsandfishes by lupin

Christmas Music

janusz l

Decorated Store Windows

Viridia

Christmas Cookies

SmallThingsIced

Ornaments

A nameless yeast

The Hustle and Bustle of the City

Tom Lin :3=

Christmas Lights

Adam Foster | Codefor

This Day Will Never Happen Again

Keri Smith's sketched quotes really hit home to me today as I've been trying to keep a level mind lately. They are definitely reminders to relax a little bit and enjoy life. To take everything in and appreciate life for what it is.

You can check out more of her sketches on her flickr page. She also has several books out.

Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Yes I know it was just barely Halloween and Thanksgiving is still weeks away. But I seriously can't control myself with the Christmas excitement! I've been using all my strength not to push play on my Holiday playlists and while I'm happy to say I've resisted so far, I don't know how much longer we can hold out. So far I've been satisfying the urge with Frank Sinatra type Jazz music.

I do have an excuse for looking at other holiday items though. Since my company is brainstorming client gifts and designing invites for our holiday parties it is all in the sake of research I tell you. Its a tough job, but someone has to do it!

Getting back on topic, aren't these little smore kits adorable? I was thinking they would make good client gifts if we could come up with a creative jingle. They would also make great small gifts for coworkers or friends. All you need to make your own are small boxes, bakers twine, and the ingredients for smores from the grocery store.

Also blue pool road has come out with their little holiday gift bags. Which includes several tags, cards, bags, and a small calendar. I love the color scheme and clean graphics.

Art is.....

I can definitely get behind this.

My Halloween Costume

To be honest I've taken the last couple halloweens off from dressing up. So I'm a little rusty in the creativity/costume finding department. And honestly I am not a fan of spending money on stuff I am only going to wear for one night. Why would I want to spend $50 on a cheap fabric costume that will sit in the back of my closet the rest of the year?

So this year, it became my goal to put together a cute costume, that I didn't look ridiculous in, and that added to my wardrobe. I decided to go with the flapper look since modern glam is all the rage.

I bought this ruffle skirt at Urban Outfitters. Granted its more modern than flapper. But it still has the layered ruffle look, and I will totally wear it again. I'm planning on pairing it with a plain black tank top so it gives the effect of a dress.

For accessories I bought this vintage beaded headband, which I also plan to put around my head a la Ashley Olsen style.

I bought this necklace off of Ebay. I thought the tassels were very 1920's. Long pearls would also work though.

And to finish it off I bought these super cute oxford t-strap heels at Target. They were a great price, will be perfect for my costume, and again I will totally wear them again with dresses.

To pull the look all together I'm going to wear bright red lipstick, my hair in wavy curls (maybe a few pieces pinned back) and smokey eye makeup. There are some amazing tutorials for makeup and hair on Youtube I highly suggest you check out. Even if you are not going as a flapper, you can search Youtube for makeup tips for your own costume and hair.

Altogether it may not be historically classic flapper, but I think it is still close enough people can tell what I am going for. And when it is all said and done, I'll be able to wear all these items again!

Halloween in the Time of Cholera

While looking for my morning photo I stumbled upon these glorious old halloween photographs. Its good to see that even back then people got creative and had fun with halloween. I have to admit, some of the costumes are pretty amazing. Especially the black cat costume at the bottom. Flickr user stevechasmar has a whole flickr set of amazingness, so make sure to check out the rest. And if you haven't figured out your costume for Saturday, maybe it could be of some inspiration.

Fabulous Fall Weekend in the District

I'm extremely excited about this weekend and hope to take advantage of all it's fall gloriousness. I'm counting that between this weekend and next weekend, the peak of fall will hit, and I'm not planning on missing any of it.

Nothing starts off a weekend right like a fall Happy Hour. This picture is from my fall apple cocktail at West End Bistro. I'm hoping to try out PS7's Pumpkin Cocktail or their Foamy Fresh Apple. Sounds like fall in a glass with an extra kick! Here is a whole list of fall happy hours so you don't miss out on any of the fun fall drinks by local mixologists.

There are some great autumn walks/drives both in the city and outside of the city. Rock Creek Park is definitely worth visiting as well as many parks in Virginia and Maryland. The Washington Post has a whole article of places worth checking out for optimal fall foliage.

If the weather is crummy on Saturday I plan on making these mini pumpkin pies. How adorable, right? And you can easily freeze them in batches and take a few out when you are craving just a taste of pumpkin pie.

Sunday I'm hoping the weather stays nice so that I can go apple and pumpkin picking outside the city. It was like torture going to all the pumpkin patches in Boston and not being able to bring any pumpkins home. So I'm itching at the bit to get a few of my own. And what better place to do it than a place where you can also pick apples and drink cider. I have yet to decide which farm to go to from this list, but I'm leaning towards Homestead Farm.

Who knows if I'll get to all these things on my list, but I know no matter what I'll be having a fabulous fall weekend. And hopefully a few of these things will inspire you to get outside and enjoy the season as well!

Creative Proposals

I've read about two amazing marriage proposals today and just had to share the cuteness. Besides we all need a little happiness in our day as we get to the end of another long week!

Be still my heart, this guy proposed with pumpkins. Seriously......amazing. He was going for a fall drive in Massachusetts with his then girlfriend (now fiance) when they came over a hill and written on the field in pumpkins was "Ari, Please Marry Me" So cute, and of course she said yes! Read the whole story here.

{via A Cup of Jo}

The second proposal was on the blog Bakerella. Apparently this guy knew how much his again then girlfriend (now fiance) loved the baking blog and how she checked it constantly. So he enlisted the help of Bakerella and she did a blog post about cake pops that then incorporated pictures proposing. Of course it was very technical of the timing and getting her to check it when he was there so he could propose. But luckily it all came together in the end. Read the actual proposal post here and the full account of how it all went down here.

So fun, I really do love a good proposal story.

Beautiful Things

I'm sure by the lack of quality posting this week it is pretty obvious I've been up to my eyeballs in work. Why is it that every time I take just one day off I spend the rest of the week catching up? Anyways, I'm still trying to play catch up, but to try to make up for it I'm doing one huge post of beautiful things.....or at least things I like. Hope you enjoy!

You know I'm a sucker for Street Art and Martin Sobey's installations are no exception. I love the mix of watercolor like shades he uses to brighten up the cityscape of New York City. {via Black Eiffel}

I want all the dresses below from ModCloth and more.

Chaos Theory Dress $59.99

Blowing Bubbles Dress $64.99

Winter in the City Dress $52.99 (so cute with tights and flats/boots!)

Grecian Green Dress $89.99

I love the idea of gradating pumpkins from the 2008 fall issue of Martha Stewart. So beautiful! {via Oh Happy Day}

I'd love to be cuddled up in this sweater right now with the freezing pouring rain outside.

Plus I bought this sweater/jacket last week from Anthro and absolutely love it. Instead of wearing boring cardigans over everything to make it work/weather appropriate I now have this fitted sweater that looks oh so cute.

I'm really digging these colorful paintings by artist Alastair MacKinven {via Mint}

Antonio Ysursa's photographs are so dark and beautiful. Check out his Flickr site, it is full of so much beauty. {via Design Work Life}